“Don’t worry, it’s a beef burger, with lots of mushrooms, you’ll love it.” Bingo, that was it. “Okay, sure! We’ll be right over.” It used to be, “mushroom burger” just meant a hamburger with lots of mushrooms piled on top. These days it usually refers to a burger in which a portobello mushroom takes the place of the patty. Nothing wrong with that, but it wasn’t what my father wanted. A grilled beef patty with melted Swiss, and slathered with sautéed shiitakes and onions? Hard to resist. So, this one was a big hit with my dad, and with my mom too, for that matter. The things that make it a step up from your typical retro mushroom burger are the dried mushroom powder mixed into the ground meat, intensifying the mushroom taste, and using shiitakes for the topping, which are highly flavorful mushrooms. You can easily skip the dried mushrooms if you don’t have any on hand, and you can easily substitute button mushrooms, or any other mushrooms, for the shiitakes if you want.
Dried shiitakesDried porcinisDried morelsDried black trumpetsDried mixed mushrooms
For a good price, try an Asian market, particularly for dried shiitakes.
No Grill? No Problem. Here’s How To Pan Fry Burgers
Yes, you can add the pre-made patties to a skillet and pan fry, but follow this trick for the best pan-fried burgers.
Preheat a heavy pan—cast iron works best—to medium high heat.Drizzle some olive oil in the pan.Instead of forming the burger patties, add balls of a quarter to a third of a pound portions of the mixture, one at a time.When beef starts to sizzle top it with foil and then smash the beef into a then patty using a smaller pan or skillet.Repeat with other portions.Cook as directed in Step 5, just on the stove top instead of the grill.
Note: If the pan is not large enough to cook all burgers at once, cook them in batches. Crowding the burgers in the pan will result in steaming them instead of frying them.
Perfect Sides for Mushroom Swiss Burgers
Black Bean Salad Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries Napa Cabbage Picnic Salad Homemade Ginger Ale Caramel Brownies
Although this recipe calls for using a grill, you can easily pan fry the burgers on your stovetop. I would recommend using a large cast iron pan for pan frying. Add the onions and the olive oil, toss to combine and continue to sauté over high heat 1 minute. Add salt to taste and cook until the onions soften and begin to brown. Remove the skillet from heat and transfer the mushrooms to a bowl.
